October 13, 2010

"'I go around and I talk about abstinence and then I'm here in my underwear doing a dance about sex and stuff, so hopefully it goes well -- hopefully I can pull it off."

Oh, Bristol.
By week four, we can pretty much say that Bristol has never looked happy to be here and we're beginning to suspect that somebody else talked her into doing this gig to serve, well, somebody else's ambitions. Bristol keeps bringing up the Big Contradiction in the Room, and she does it again tonight, in a rerun clip from Monday: "I go around and I talk about abstinence and then I'm here in my underwear doing a dance about sex and stuff, so hopefully it goes well -- hopefully I can pull it off," she's heard to say as we see her, wearing only a large white shirt and opaque stockings, preparing for Monday's dance. We can see her future speaking engagements: "Don't be like me girls. Don't get pregnant -- and don't go on celebrity dance competitions!"
I'm here in my underwear...  hopefully I can pull it off...

By the way, I really wish I'd titled this post "Let's take a closer look at that fleshy display."

75 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why no same-sex couples on DWTS?

Richard Dolan said...

Today's theme seems to be about squaring circles and resolving unresolvable contradictions. Bristol here, and O on DOMA in the prior post, are both having the same trouble.

It's Hegelianism gone small bore (and the big bore version of that didn't work out so well the first time around). But it fits the times (at least the Times) perfectly. Just ask Tom Friedman.

MayBee said...

I'm not sure that's fair. Did you see Kim Kardashian on DWTS? She was terrible. Uncomfortable.
Yet she's the biggest self-promoter there is. I suspect it's just different, once you are on, than you think it's going to be.

Ron said...

Didn't the ghost of JFK tell John John he had the skills to fly that twin engine plane?

It's like that, right?

Phil 314 said...

Just say "No"

Another example of a child of a celebrity sucked into the vortex

traditionalguy said...

Could it be that the Palin wing of the GOP is pro-woman and pro sex within marriage. Dancing involves couples. Couples involve marriage. Marriage involves lots of hot sex. There are no prudes needed here except those in the Gotcha Media that demands we view of all sex as scandalous. As Bristol knows better than most, sex creates babies. So hurray for sex and for babies and for children that have children that love their grandfathers as much as he loves them.

garage mahal said...

Chilling.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Seriously. Who ever thought it would be a good idea for Bristol Palin to appear on Dance With the Stars.

I haven't seen the show. Ever. But when I heard that she was going to be on it, and given her delicate situation as an unwed teenage mother, as the daughter of Sarah Palin (who already has a huge target painted on her back)......I thought.....nothing good will come of this.

Poor Bristol.

Sharon Glickstein said...

what an embarrASSment to us all, these palins. running around like hillbilly deer rutting in the woods and getting knocked up.

traditionalguy said...

Attitude matters the most. Here we have one attitude that babies are a crisis that could interfere with a free people's serial sluthood. But a better attitude , like that of the Catholic Church's, is that babies are the best blessing that can come into a couple's life. So some are moaning over Bristol Palin being used by being an example of a family sharing in her receiving a blessing. GrandMaw Sarah thinks so.

Alex said...

Graduate-degree white liberals are superior to hillbilly Palin-types because they only have 1-2 children that are very carefully planned. Also any defect-laden fetuses instantly aborted.

Salamandyr said...

Question for anyone who has watched the show. Is Bristol any good?

MayBee said...

Don't forget that Brandy, also currently on the show, had a baby at the age of 21. She never married the father, though she pretended to for the sake of reality tv.

Coincidentally, it was Brandy's brother Ray-J who made the sex tape that launched Kim Kardashian's "career".

Sharon Glickstein said...

i can't say i agree with everything alex said but his point is right. bristol palin is sashaying around like a modern carrie buck. isn't two generations of imbeciles enough?

Anonymous said...

"As Bristol knows better than most, sex creates babies."

Only penile-vaginal sex between a man and a woman, of breeding age. Read your William Saletan.

jungatheart said...

I like my scotch neat, like RD's post. But I would have asked David Brooks.

SteveR said...

Perhaps they should just do a "Sex With the Stars" show. Plenty of celebs have already done it, Paris, Kim, Pam, etc. but it would be nice to have good production values, better plot development and insightful judging.

Porn stars could fill the professional partner role. No doubt ratings would be huge.

jungatheart said...

lol gm

Hagar said...

I have always thought promoting "abstinence" was a mistake; it sounds like sex is a pleasure the adults want to keep for themselves.
It would be better to suggest that the girls ask themselves, "Qui bono?" and exercise the matter between their ears in the interest of self preservation, like mothers used to tell their daughters.

Before anyone jumps in about "double standards," the consequences of promiscous sex can be equally devastating for boys; it just is not as glaringly obvious as for girls.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

hopefully I can pull it off...

So does Kristal.. the pistol.

roesch-voltaire said...

Pulling it off for the Palins seems to be about saying one thing, while doing another, so Bristol is right in step with her mother.

Synova said...

I think that the idea that this is Sarah Palin's idea is ridiculous. How did this go from terrible trailer trash stuff that destroys Sarah Palin to some sort of nefarious plot to promote her?

Most likely Sarah Palin mentioned the bathing suit competition and warned her daughter about it.

And I think that Bristol is realizing that, yeah, she's a little bit body conscious and she's trying not to be body conscious, but she is body conscious and this is uncomfortable for her.

Meade said...

SteveR said...
"Perhaps they should just do a "Sex With the Stars" show."

Terrible idea. That could lead to extramarital dancing!

Joe said...

(The Crypto Jew)
Pulling it off for the Palins seems to be about saying one thing, while doing another, so Bristol is right in step with her mother.


Well, said R-V, and now just offer a few tid-bits of stuff otherwise known as “evidence” and you will have rounded the horn, to advancing an “argument.” Saying, “Google it for yourself” doesn’t count, neither does saying, “I’m not your research assistant.” You have made the assertion, now back it up….

Michael said...

Ron: Minor correction. I think the ghost of JFK suggested to JohnJohn that he needn't pay attention to the instruments but rather rely on his own sense of up and down and follow those "feelings" rather than the panel before him.

Janis Gore said...

Salamandyr, no, she's not particularly good, but she's better than she thought she would be.

At the outset, on Leno, I think, she said she was uncoordinated and had no sense of rhythm.

I envy her the opportunity to work with a professional dancer.

And no, Miss Palin don't think you look like a slut for doing a traditional dance on a ballroom dance floor with your mother in the audience.

Synova said...

"i can't say i agree with everything alex said but his point is right. bristol palin is sashaying around like a modern carrie buck. isn't two generations of imbeciles enough?"

So what is this? A Better Moby than American's Politico?

An educated person would immediately be reminded of the height of Eugenics in the United States when people believed that something called "moral weakness" was inheritable and there were people sterilized by our government against their wills and even without their knowledge... one girl because she was raped by a wealthy son... how many generations of imbeciles is enough? People "bravely" asked this question.

Abortion has always been about eugenics, not just now that some people are brave enough to say so out loud again, as if it was a reasonable statement to make.

But lets please have cows when some reenactor dresses up in a Nazi uniform and studies battle maneuvers...

But the idea that some people shouldn't *breed*, suggested with apparent seriousness, is quite different, quite enlightened.

Own what you say... own your own opinions. Is owning eugenics what you really want to do?

traditionalguy said...

J...You are very witty. But Bill Clinton has helpfully defined "having sex with that woman" or not as a vaginal/penile intercouse category. all those other Indoor Sporting events are exciting but are not actually " Having Sex". All of this sex as theater is an attempt to sell media products plus the media's attempt to get the Christian Legalist vote to stay home and pout.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Not that I'm paying attention ;)

But if I remember correctly, it was a nude model that suggested to Bristol they should do a reality show... he tweeted that he missed her.. all in an effort to get back in the spotlight.

Once that fell through, the door was open to other possibilities..

This is not rocket science people!!

Titus said...

No she is not a good dancer but her partner is fucking hot.

Anonymous said...

Trad Guy,

I'm just sayin' that not all sex makes babies.

chuck b. said...

Leave Bristol alone! She's figuring stuff out.

Titus said...

Also just as an FYI out of the 16 miners pulled from the well I would do 6.

Every time that capsule,
that looks like something you used to shoot through the bank drive through comes up with a new miner I get a little excited with the hopes of another hottie.

Titus said...

Also, something like 17 more to go. How exciting.

I actually went on line and priced tickets to Chile just because the miners were hot. Is that wrong?

DKWalser said...

Question for anyone who has watched the show. Is Bristol any good?

Yes, she is. For the most part, she is in time with the music and remembers her steps. What she lacks is polish and personality. Part of that may be because she's shy is yet to become comfortable in front of the camera, but part of it is the camera just doesn't love her as much as it loves her mother.

Synova said...

"...Court upholding Virginia's compulsory sterilization law in Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927), where he (Oliver Wendell Holmes) found no constitutional bar to state-ordered compulsory sterilization of an institutionalized, allegedly "feeble-minded" woman. Holmes wrote, "We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes. ... three generations of imbeciles are enough."

I could be wrong, but it's possible that the individual in question was the raped girl... her moral weakness being that she was a slut like her mother and grandmother.

Later...

"When the issue of compulsory sterilization was brought up at the Nuremberg trials after the war, many Nazis defended their actions on the matter by indicating that it was the United States itself from whom they had taken inspiration."

(Yeah, it's Wikipedia, but it's a generally good place to start.)

So, I'd like to know... how many generations of imbeciles is enough?

Titus said...

Thanks Synova. Amazing article.

bagoh20 said...

"we're beginning to suspect that somebody else talked her into doing this gig to serve, well, somebody else's ambitions. "

Bored much?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Rush is on fire today..

Obamacare will cause medicare advantage to go up..

So Rush said this means Obama sees seniors as "shovel ready".

Titus said...

If those miners have been down there for 68 days a couple of things come to mind.

One, did they have a private jerky area?

Two, was there any sex?

Three, if no sex and no private jerky area they must have some pretty big loads stocked up.

Love some of the tats on them too-just an observation.

ricpic said...

what an embarrASSment to us all, these palins. running around like hillbilly deer rutting in the woods and getting knocked up.

I'd love to hear Sharon Glickstein riffing on homo anal. C'mon you moderate bitch, give us your high minded take on that.

William said...

Liberals, their senses deaded by years of drug abuse and listening to Obama's speeches, have turned to a new, more pernicious form of pornography to resucitate their dying libidos. This pornography--the technical term is palinography-- centers around the erotic study of the Palins and their sex partners. I don't understand why they find the sex life of this family so fascinating, but there it is. It's like trying to explain to a conservative why wearing black chaps with bare buttocks is a demonstration of gay pride. Some things just exist, and there is no explanation for their existence. This is especially true of fetishes....There is a fad among Duke students to have anal sex during Bristol's appearances. They call it "leaning forward", and the fad is spreading to Ivy League campi. It will soon be the big thing among liberals.....Bristol's appearance serves to further an agenda, but it is not that of Sarah Palin.

Meade said...

"I actually went on line and priced tickets to Chile just because the miners were hot. Is that wrong?"

Only if you kept it a secret from your husband.

MadisonMan said...

I always want to ask eugenics proponents -- they generally don't think of themselves that way, incidentally -- to explain why they think regression to the mean won't be operating for them.

A Couple of Mensans are very likely to have a kid who is dumber than they are. Two very tall people? Their kids will be shorter.

Titus said...

I tried anal a couple of times being the bottom and I just couldn't do it.

It hurt so bad, I felt like I was going to take a shit on their dick, I was in complete pain and I stopped after like 30 seconds.

I would never try again. I don't even want a finger or a tongue up there.

My doctor say I have the prostate like a 15 year old boy and I want to keep it that way.

I am scared about getting fucked that my ass pucker will not bounce back and loaves will just fall from my hole in the shopping mall or at the gym.

Therefore I am a top.

Titus said...

I didn't keep it a secret from my husband. I told him jokingly.


I can look, I wouldn't touch though...except myself when I jerky jerky.

I have been completely faithful-wow that is incredible.

But I am 40 now and really at a point in my life where I should and will only be with one person.

Wow, I have grown. Group hug.

What about Brett Favre's hog? Fake or Real pictures that are now on the internet?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

If those miners have been down there for 68 days..

They were too busy titus.

While rescuers drilled from the top to get to them.. debri was falling on them (the cave) thru the small hole they first drilled.. this meant they were busy clearing the debri away from the opening.

bagoh20 said...

Titus, I'd suggest you are not gay, and since your were born that way, submit or submit to your nature. The choice must be made. Let your inner hetero out.

Titus said...

Paladino's son ran a gay bar and had a float in a gay pride parade-very disappointing.

Even more disappointing Paladino apologized to all the fudgies he "offended". Very sad.

Rabbi Levin must be so hurt.

Titus said...

bag I know many gays that don't have anal fyi.

It is not like a requirement to be gay to do anal.

My husband and I have never done anal-either way.

It is not something we even discuss anymore. We did at the beginning but we realized it would be a fight for the top so we just do the jerky jerky.

I may lick a ball here and there, don't care for it, but if it can help him get off I am ok with it.

I do like feeling his big arms and tits-that's definitely gay.

Did I mention he has an amazing body?

Titus said...

I am going to go jerk off now.

Have a great day everyone!

Michael Haz said...

I want past this topic a couple of times thinking "Meh, nothing here".

The topic began to bother me, though, so I returned to ask this question:

Althouse, is this the best you can do; putting up a paragraph about Bristol Palin taken from a snarky column about DWTS contestants?

She's 19, hasn't attended university, and like many 19 year olds hasn't yet become a fully-formed adult. But because she is the child of a famous (conservative) woman, she is fungible snark material.

Worse, the snark column was written by one well-educated woman, and excerpted for blog-amusement and troll bait by another well-educated woman.

I don't know the original author's political beliefs, but I'd hazard a guess that she, like you, is proudly liberal. That must make Bristol Palin fair game in some way you can both justify.

Yes, Bristol doesn't speak with the clarity of a well-educated woman. And yes she saw some irony in the message of her speech about abstinence contrasted with what she wore for her performance. And yes, she decided not to abort her child and to raise it as a single mother.

All that apparently makes her worthy of criticism and ridicule by other women, both of whom conduct their ridicule in media that invites others to do the same and worse.

Althouse, you posted an interesting topic about feminism a few days ago. Perhaps the question of where feminism has gone can be answered by explaining to your readers how it became acceptable for well-educated women in positions of influence to publicly ridicule a young woman who is working as hard as she can to be a responsible adult under circumstances you would not have wished on your sons when they were 19.

Trooper York said...

The blogger lady just likes to make fun of Bristol because she is a little chubby because of the baby weight.

Michael Haz said...

Trooper - The babies are now grown and gone. It's time she moved past the baby weight issue.

garage mahal said...

Actually, lots of women who don't abort their pregnancy get mildly criticized too.

Darcy said...

You absolutely rock as always, Michael Haz.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

@MH

Maybe Althouse just uses the Palins as equal time, a gimme to the three liberals that come here regularly.

Libs love to hate her.. she is irresistible to them.

jungatheart said...

"I am going to go jerk off now.

Have a great day everyone!"

See ya later, Troop.

bwebster said...

"... we're beginning to suspect that somebody else talked her into doing this gig to serve, well, somebody else's ambitions."

Anyone who thinks that Sarah Palin talked Bristol into doing this to serve her (Sarah's) ambitions is reaching a bridge too far. Don't mistake supporting a child with encouraging or compelling a child. I've had adult children who have made what I consider to be poor or questionably decisions -- but I treat them like adults. If they ask for my opinion, I give it; other than that, I love them and support them as best I can.

That may be a novel thought to some, but I suspect that those of a conservative bent are far more likely to let their kids succeed and fail on their own, while those of a more liberal bent are more likely to hover and/or control, even as their kids go into adulthood.

Bob_R said...

Yeah, Bristol is trying so hard to keep a low profile.

MadisonMan said...

All that apparently makes her worthy of criticism and ridicule by other women

What makes B. Palin worthy of criticism and ridicule is going on a reality TV show. And that is what Moraes does for part of her living: write commentary about TV shows. Do you think she should just be laudatory?

we're beginning to suspect that somebody else talked her into doing this gig to serve, well, somebody else's ambitions.

I know we're supposed to think she means Sarah Palin, but I'm thinking she more likely means a DWTS Producer. Getting Bristol on the show was quite a coup -- it has generated tons of publicity.

chickelit said...

MadisonMan wrote: I know we're supposed to think she means Sarah Palin, but I'm thinking she more likely means a...

It seems pretty clear from Moreas' earlier columns here and here that she's got real issues with Bristol's mother.
Yes it's her job to write to her audience but it seems pretty clear (to me) who her audience is.

chickelit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael Haz said...

...we're beginning to suspect that somebody else talked her into doing this gig to serve, well, somebody else's ambitions.

Who, exactly, does the writer mean by we're? per she means that she does, but lacks the courage to account for what she says.

That statement, made by a woman, does nothing except infantilize another woman who, the author would have us believe, is incapanle of making a decision for herself. So therefore she must have been talked into it.

Just like back on the 1950s when women weren't thought smart enough to make any decisions for themselves beyond which dress to wear while cleaning the house.

Nice job, feminists.

It wasn't long ago that a young single woman supporting herself and a child was held to be a heroic figure - one that was striving to overcome the patriarchical strictures of society. Now it's the matriarchs, some if them, who ridicule that same woman.

She's fleshy. Terriffic. That's grade A material.

garage mahal said...

What makes B. Palin worthy of criticism

Easy easy! Any further and El Pollo will find you embedded in Palin's uterus.

chickelit said...

Easy easy! Any further and El Pollo will find you embedded in Palin's uterus.

Ha! If were such fan I'd be watching DWTS--I'm not.

I was just trying to search the Althouse archives for one of Maxine's comments around the time of the 2008 election, just before Halloween. Some demented West Hollywood gays had just hung Palin in effigy for a Halloween decoration because they thought she was a huge opponent to LGBT rights.

Maxine was quietly saying: no no, they've got her all wrong; they should embrace her fabulousness.

ricpic said...

Just like back on the 1950s when women weren't thought smart enough to make any decisions for themselves beyond which dress to wear while cleaning the house.

This may be the feminist manufactured myth of the 50's but as someone who grew up in the era let me tell you that America was as much of a matriarchy back then as it is now with women making ALL the major decisions in the running of most households.

Sharon Glickstein said...

ricpic: "I'd love to hear Sharon Glickstein riffing on homo anal. C'mon you moderate bitch, give us your high minded take on that."

my take is that everyone fucks ricpic. and everyone fucks, ricpic.

Janis Gore said...

But, yes, yanking the shirt was a tacky move, and tends to be graceless under the steamiest conditions.

Sexy shirt work requires buttons, I say.

Synova said...

"Just like back on the 1950s when women weren't thought smart enough to make any decisions for themselves beyond which dress to wear while cleaning the house."

I think that we misunderstand this sort of thing... consider Rosie the Riveter and various 1940's war related efforts where women were encouraged to take up those roles usually held by men. People knew better in the 50's so it's not that people really thought that women couldn't do things. They thought, first, that men needed employment from a limited pool of available jobs (Yes, there is an error here, but people still believe that resources related to labor and economics are finite. It's an error, but it's not anti-woman.) and second, being "taken care of" was a symbol of affluence. Poor women worked. Rich women did not. And the middle class tries to ape the rich, not the poor.

Keeping up with the Joneses, it was, wasn't it? The shame if the Mrs. had to work. The shame if the Mr. couldn't keep everyone in style. We often focus on how soul-killing this was for women, but it was absolutely soul-killing for men.

It might have been pretty good for kids, though.

ricpic said...

A spite filled non-answer smear from Glickstein, good little Alinskyite that it is.

jungatheart said...

"...but it was absolutely soul-killing for men."

So true, Synova. There's a very common saying I'm trying to think of, but I can't bring it to mind.

jungatheart said...

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
-Thoreau

I didn't realize that was Thoreau.

chickelit said...

I didn't realize that was Thoreau.

Yeah, I thought it was Pink Floyd, man.

jungatheart said...

A common error.